


So Much For My Happy Ending

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 01:32:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2489546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Regina requests the author of the book write her a happy ending, she doesn't get quite what she bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Much For My Happy Ending

_And so it came to pass that Regina turned her back on her loveless marriage, and her loathed stepdaughter, and walked into the inn to meet the man with the lion tattoo on his arm. She knew that she must not be afraid, that she had to take this step in order to win her happy ending. So she walked over and introduced herself to the man, whose name was Robin. And she looked at him, and she knew that Tinker Bell had been right, this was her one true love._

_In time, Regina and Robin married. And they lived happily ever after._

Except they didn’t. Not at all.

 

Initially, Regina believed that she had won, that she had achieved her happy ending after all. Some people would have thought Regina was crazy for turning her back on her life in the palace with King Leopold in favour of moving into Sherwood Forest with Robin and his men. Cora certainly would have, had she been there to see it. Regina still didn’t know where she’d sent her, but she knew she was relieved that Cora wasn’t there to judge the choices she had made. And yet although she hadn’t addressed the issue of Cora when she asked that her role in the book be rewritten, there was another part of Regina that was relieved that Cora was alive out there somewhere, and now there was at least the chance that one day they may reconcile.

In all the years of their marriage, Regina and Robin had never been blessed with children. Robin had always said that if it was meant to be, it was meant to be, and if he was upset, he had never allowed her to see it. Sometimes Regina wished that ensuring that Robin never began a relationship with Marian had not meant erasing Roland from existence. Robin didn’t remember him. Since Regina was the only one who knew that her story had been rewritten, he had no idea that he had once had a child with someone else. But Regina knew what she had taken from him, and she also knew that if Robin ever knew that, he’d never forgive her and that would be the end of their happy ending.

She hadn’t thought it through at the time. And deep down, Regina knew now that the happy ending she really wanted was in Storybrooke with Robin and Roland, but she also knew that she had to go back to what was written in the book in order to succeed.

She preferred not to think of Leopold, or Snow, or anyone else she had left behind. This was her life now, and it would jeopardise her happy ending to dwell on the past. The first time Regina allowed herself to think of those she had known before was the day when Little John had casually mentioned that the wedding of King George’s son James to King Midas’s daughter Abigail was to take place that day.

How the hell had that happened? Regina wondered. Even she had acknowledged by the end that Snow and Charming belonged together. How had he ended up marrying Abigail after all? Because he hadn’t met Snow, she realised. With no Regina in the palace to manipulate the Genie of Agrabah into killing King Leopold, and then to try and take power after his death, Leopold was still alive, Snow was still in favour, and without Regina putting a price on her head, Snow had never been at the Troll Bridge to steal Charming’s ring, so they never ended up meeting. And Charming had obviously acted on King George’s threats and gone through with the wedding.

Regina had had no deliberate intention of changing Snow and Charming’s happy ending. Over time, she’d got past her hatred of Snow. Although a part of her would always remember Daniel fondly, she now knew that Snow had not taken her one chance at love away from her. So while the old Regina might well have taken the opportunity to coerce the writer of the book into changing that too, the new Regina bore her no malice and would not have tried to break them apart.

She wondered what kind of ending Snow and Charming would have now they were no longer to marry. Maybe Leopold would arrange a marriage for Snow, and she would have children.

But she would not have Emma. That meant Henry would not be born, either.

 

_In order that Rumpelstiltskin could travel to the Land Without Magic and seek out his lost son, he entrusted the casting of his curse to Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West. It saddened Zelena’s heart to rip out the heart of her mother, Cora, for they had become close since Rumpelstiltskin had arranged for her removal from Wonderland and for her and Zelena to reconcile. But Zelena knew why it had to be that way, because Rumpelstiltskin had finally realised that it must be she who cast the curse and he could not allow himself to be sacrificed as the thing Zelena loved most._

_And so the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest awoke one morning to find themselves in the Land Without Magic, in a town named Storybrooke, with no memory of their former lives. And Rumpelstiltskin, who had been so determined that the curse should be cast in order that he could be reconciled with Baelfire, no longer remembered that he had a son. For this time, there was no Emma Swan to break the curse, no saviour to free them all._

 

Her name was Anna Anderson.

Zelena had chosen the name, although Anna did not know it, in honour of another pretender to the throne in this Land Without Magic. Even in the last days before the casting of the curse, Cora had often spoken of her disappointment that Regina had chosen to reject the life that Cora had chosen for her (Much to Zelena’s disgust, since Zelena had continued to wish that Cora would forget about the ungrateful Regina and concentrate on the daughter who actually wanted what Cora wanted). Well, the favourite daughter was nobody’s favourite now, not Cora’s, not Rumpelstiltskin’s, not the son’s she would no longer adopt. Anna cleaned for Zelena, now installed as Mayor of Storybrooke, and Zelena was determined to enjoy knowing that she finally had the power over her sister that she had so long craved. 

And she had no memory that she had ever loved Robin Hood. Zelena’s final act of cruelty had been to reunite Robin with Marian in much the same way that Regina had reunited Charming with Abigail. So in trying to give herself a happy ending Regina had managed to give herself nothing of the kind.

*****

“You have got to be kidding me,” Regina snapped. “I said I wanted you to write me a happy ending.”

“And I wrote you the ending that you wanted, Regina,” the writer of the book reminded her. “You asked that you were not written as a villain, that you be given the happy ending you walked away from all those years ago. That is what I have done.”

“But it doesn’t have to be that way,” Henry pleaded. “Mom’s not evil, not any more. She really is trying to change. She deserves a happy ending just as much as my grandpa, and everyone else. You did it for Grandpa. She’s helped so many of us now, I don’t know if we’d all still be here without her. Is there no other happy ending you can give her, give all of us?”

“Maybe there is something,” replied the writer.

_And so Regina and Henry returned to the Land Without Magic, where they found everything as it had been. Zelena’s version of the curse had never been cast, Snow and Charming were happy, Emma Swan was still the town’s Sheriff and saviour, all retained their memories of their own land, and Regina was Anna Anderson no more, but was herself again._

_And Marian had understood that her happy ending did not lie with Robin, and with the help of her friend Belle, she had formed her new life without him. And Robin came to Regina, told her that he knew now that the only way he would have his happy ending was with her._

_In time, Regina and Robin married. And they all lived happily ever after._


End file.
